Electric massager



Sept. 1969 AKIHIKO TERANISHI ELECTRIC MASSAGER Filed April 17, 1967 IN VEN TOR may/K0 Teen/v 15/,

United States Patent 3,468,304 ELECTRIC MASSAGER Akihiko Teranishi, 8 3-chome, Yamawakimachi, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Japan Filed Apr. 17, 1967, Ser. No. 631,410 Claims priority, application Japan, May 19, 1966, 41/ 46,914 Int. Cl. A61h 23/00 US. Cl. 128-36 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention is concerned with an electrically driven massager having a hollow head in which rotates an eccentric weight for producing a vibration in said head and a resiliently and detachably mounted collar with knobs extending therefrom which may have various shapes and are for being pressed against the body or the like to be massaged.

Description The present massager has an electric motor with driven shaft connected by a coil spring to a driven shaft rotatably mounted in a hollow head and which driven shaft carries an eccentrically positioned weight therewith for creating a vibratory motion to said head. A resilient ring surrounds said head and a detachable collar with lateral knobs is mounted on and around said ring.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an electrically operated massager having knobs of different shapes dismountably carried by the massager and which knobs are resiliently mounted so that they can be used for massaging a body or the like but with the vibrations of the massager as transmitted to the body being softened.

With reference to the accompanying drawing,

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the detachable collar forming part of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of said collar.

FIG. 3 is a side elevation partly in cross-section showing the present massager.

And FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the upper portion of the present massager.

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawing wherein like and corresponding parts are designated by similar reference characters numeral 1 refers to an electric motor to be connected by wires 1a to a source of electrical current and which motor has drive shaft 2 attached to one end of a spiral spring 3 which has its opposite ends also attached to shaft 5 rotatably mounted in the hollow housing 4. Said housing has a bearing 6 in the top thereof and a bearing 7 integral with the bottom center portion of said housing and with shaft 5 rotatably mounted in said bearings and extending through bearing 7. Coil spring 8 has one end mounted on the top of motor 1 concentric with spring 3, its top end bearing against housing 4 with hearing 7 extending within said spring 8 and the medial coils of spring 8 being spaced apart. A tubular sheath 9 of a synthetic resin extends between motor 1 and housing 4 enclosing spring 8 therein.

Shaft 5 has a weight 10 fixedly connected thereto and extending eccentrically thereof whereby rotation of shaft 5 and weight 10 will cause housing 4 to vibrate.

Said housing 4 is substantially cylindrical and has a buffer ring 11 of rubber, foamed rubber or the like encircling the side of said housing.

A collar 12 partially encircles said buffer ring 11 in that said collar is formed as a partial circle as best shown in FIG. 2 but with its ends spaced apart. Said collar is formed of an elastic material such as a synthetic resin or the like and has a series of spaced apart knobs 13 extending around the periphery of said collar. Said knobs 13 can be of a different configuration as desired.

A pair of resilient wires or bands 15 are embedded in the inner face of collar 12 and extend around said collar and are formed of a steel wire or band. The opposite ends of each of said bands 15 overlap and extend in opposite directions. The corresponding ends of both pair of bands are connected by one of the knobs 16.

In the drawing the collar 12 is in the form of a band 14 which is slightly thicker than the bands 15 and has side flanges which encase the edges of the ring 11. While collar 12, ring 11 and the periphery of housing 4 are shown as being circular, it is to be appreciated that the shape thereof can be changed as desired.

In order to mount collar 12 on the massager knobs 16 are pressed towards one another as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 2. This pushes the ends of the bands 15 enlarging the circumference of said bands and collar 12 so the collar can then be slid over ring 11. Upon releasing knobs 16, the resilient bands 15 will return to their normal configuration drawing collar 12 against ring 11. To dismount said collar the knobs are again pressed towards one another and the collar lifted from ring 11.

In the use of the present massager with current being fed to motor 1, knobs 13 are pressed against the body to be massaged and the type of knobs desired is obtained by mounting a collar 12 having the desired knobs thereon. Due to the resilient connection by spring 3, the resilient mounting of housing 4 by spring 8 and the resilient ring 11 supporting collar 12 the vibratory motion of knobs 13 is softly transmitted to the body engaged thereby.

The present invention is capable of considerable modifications and such changes thereto as come within the scope of the appended claim is deemed to be a part thereof.

I claim:

1. An improvement in massagers comprising an electric motor having a drive shaft, a hollow housing, a spring connecting said shafts, a Weight eccentrically attached to said driven shaft within said housing and a pressing member resiliently and detachably mounted around the outside of said housing and having a series of spaced apart projections positioned around the outside thereof, said pressing member being in the form of a partial circle with spaced apart ends and composed of a resilient material, a resilient band is mounted in the interior of said pressing member and has oppositely di rected overlapping ends in the space between said pressing member spaced apart ends and knobs are carried by said resilient band ends for being pressed together at times for the mounting and dismounting of said resilient band and pressing member relative to said housing.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,364,922 l/1968 Teranishi ..128-36 L. W. TRAPP, Primary Examiner 

